"A hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design."

In his Picturesque Notes on Edinburgh, Robert Louis Stevenson noted that Arthur's seat was Arthur's Seat was "a hill for magnitude, a mountain in virtue of its bold design."

It is the main summit in the group of hills forming Holyrood Park and affords amazing views over Edinburgh in all directions (822ft at summit).

We often take the kids up here and let them choose a route. On Thursday I took both kids up and put Leo in charge of path finding. Thus, we found ourselves scrambling up a reasonably inhospitable path to the summit of Arthur's Seat in a bit of a gale and with it starting to rain.

We took a hasty snap of the kids clinging to the trig point, before I had to shepherd them down again which was probably harder than getting up there in the first place.

As it is almost in Edinburgh itself, it is easy to think of Arthur's Seat as little more than an easy stroll, but just like any Scottish hill the weather changes quickly at the top and waterproofs and good shoes are a must regardless of the weather at the bottom!

It provided some good navigating and scrambling practice.

Some nuggets of Arthur's Seat info:

• A hill fort occupies the summit of Arthur's Seat and the subsidiary hill, Crow Hill.
• Arthur's Seat is mentioned as one of the possible locations for Camelot, the legendary castle and court of the Romano-British warrior King Arthur.
• The foot of Arthur's Seat, was covered by the forest of Drumselch, in which the 12th-century Scottish king, David I, encountered a stag while out hunting. Having fallen from his horse and about to be gored, he had a vision of a cross appearing between the animal's antlers, before it inexplicably turned away, leaving him unharmed. David, believing his life had been spared through divine intervention, founded Holyrood Abbey on the spot.